It’s always the same story (for non-Nordic cities): 2in of snow and the town collapses … while Britain dramatically floods, many cities in the US are facing non-stop snowstorms. Just a couple of weeks ago, Atlanta shut down – thousands of flights cancelled, 2,000 school children separated from parents and all kinds of dramatic stories of people stranded in highways or buses emerging. Rebecca Burns recalls in Politico Magazine how many took it as comical that one of the largest metropolitan areas of the US was brought to a standstill by a few flurries, and how it was only a matter of time until comparisons with the poster of the zombie apocalypse in the TV show The Walking Dead started popping up all over the net. She goes on to explain, though, that “what happened is not a matter of southerners blindsided by unpredictable weather” and that this event, more than any other, underscores the “horrible history of suburban sprawl in the United States and the bad political decisions that drive it”. Mainly, a balkanised metro area with over 60 mayors – reportedly 1m vehicles were leaving downtown Atlanta when the storm hit; a transportation system monopolised by cars and one main highway – the ‘downtown connector’ – a public transport system that only serves a fraction of the region; and the rejection of a special tax for transport improvement in a 2012 referendum. The result of this dangerous mix was a total paralysis – from which the city seems to have learned the second time around as citizens chose to stay home.

As Dan McQuade puts it, snow is pretty when it falls, then it just lays there. And it gets ugly. This Philadelphia Magazine article explores an increasingly popular idea for a better use of public spaces triggered by the recent snow in the Pennsylvanian city. Its ”sneckdowns” – from ‘snow neckdowns’, or the space where snow collects in the street revealing the parts of paved roads cars don’t use – a term coined and expanding on Twitter.

As Philadelphia political journalist, Jon Geeting, chronicled that snow accumulation shows spaces that are reserved for traffic but that aren’t used, and the idea is that these sneckdowns could be put to better use, such as pedestrian plazas – hence, making pedestrian feel safer and encouraging more foot traffic – without disturbing traffic or parking.

The 'I ♥ NY' emblem is one of the most iconic among modern cities. Photograph: Photograph: Enid Alvarez/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

After Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper commissioned eight new city logos for Toronto ny graphic designers, coinciding with the scandals surrounding its mayor – although not with this direct intention – a New Yorker piece questioned why, while it’s not obvious that city logos bear any relation to reputation, cities persist at changing them.

Paul Hiebert traces city emblems back to 12-century Europe, and explains that while at first logos were a useful way of identifying various groups at a time when the peasantry was largely illiterate, “in recent decades heraldry has been losing ground to modern graphics, as cities borrow from the logos of the corporate world”. The article explores the interesting strategies that cities like New York, Amsterdam or Seattle envisioned behind the creation of world famous logos.

The Zatari camp in Syria, currently hosting 100,000 Syrian refugees, was visited by CNN, who produced this report showing how its inhabitants live and work. This interactive map lets you explore this provisional city and includes beauty salons, three schools, vegetable gardens, a supermarket and even a makeshift ”Champs Elysees”.

Everything’s bigger in China, including ice sculptures. The Harbin Ice and Snow World, in north-west China, is actually almost an ice city made of 180,000 cubic metres of ice. It includes structures from around the world, including the Empire State Building, the Colosseum and the Jade Belt bridge from Beijing, as this beautiful gallery by the New York Times Magazine shows. Last year, this festival – designed to promote winter tourism – attracted 800,000 visitors. A future ice Vegas?

Apparently, each city has its own Williamsburg. Without entering the debate around whether this is good news or a catastrophe, this Gawker piece by Max Read wants to be a definitive list of “hip – or formerly hip and now just rich” neighourhoods in North America but also a handful of European, African and Asian cities. Oh, and they include the Bushwicks – or “next Williamsburgs” – too. Check if they got yours right.

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